A new reading of a crucial chapter in the history of social and political thought – the transition from the late Enlightenment to early liberalism.

The Transformation of Urban Liberalism re-evaluates the dramatic and turbulent political decade following the 'third Reform Act', and questions whether the Liberal Party's political heartlands - the urban boroughs - really were in decline. Using parallel case studies, James Moore illustrates how the party gradually began to transform into a social democratic organisation through a re-evaluation of its role and policy direction. This process was heavily influenced by 'grass roots politics', suggesting that late Victorian politics was more democratic and open than sometimes thought.

Dr Tanner utilises extensive data from the respective party records to examine the nature of the Liberal and Labour parties prior to 1914.

As a historian of the Renaissance and the rise of Christianity, Burckhardt was concerned with periods of social, political, and cultural transformation. Writing in the aftermath of the 1848 Revolutions and in the long shadow cast by the French Revolution of 1789, he observed the rise of industrial capitalism and mass politics with trepidation. He especially lamented the fate of the individual, whose creativity had shaped the glories of the Renaissance and ancient Greece but who was increasingly domesticated and commodified in modern society. Unlike conventional accounts, which characterize him as an apolitical aesthete, Hinde shows us that Burckhardt was as a thinker of profound importance whose conservative anti-modernism ranks him with his colleague Friedrich Nietzsche.

In the ‘broad church’ of the Australian Liberal Party, rarely has there been a maverick so unrelenting in his commitment to personal principles as Senator Peter Baume. Over a parliamentary career spanning 17 years, three ministerial portfolios and five party leaders, Baume was increasingly pitted against his own party room. In A Dissident Liberal: The Political Writings of Peter Baume, we learn of personal threats, crises, constitutional confrontation and the tension between conservatism and classical liberalism—and between ideology and toeing the party line. This collection of personal observations, speeches and commentaries on contentious policy issues presents a valuable resource for students of Australian political history.